by Ellis Avery
Introduction and Acqusition: The author is an acquaintance of a friend of mine. We saw her do a reading at Three Lives bookstore in the West Village, which is where I bought the book and got it signed.
Time and Circumstance: Early Spring 2007; Am heading to Japan in mid-May, and wanted to gain some familiarity with the country before going there. Plus, as mentioned above, we had just seen her do a reading which whetted my appetite for the book.
What's cool: A great introduction the Japanese culture for those beginners or even novices. For those with some experience with Japanese culture, this provides a wonderful look into the world of the tea ceremony. There is a great amount of respect and admiration for the tea ceremony in this book, as it is so lovingly portrayed.
What kinda sucks: While is is a great novel for a first time author, it still contains some (very few) first time author details. At times I thought the main character's difficulty with the language - even after 5 years in the country - was unbelievable. And occasionally the author would be describing or referencing something that happened, an in the attempts at being twisty about it, she lost me. I had no idea what the author was talking about. The last chapter was fatal in its lack of necessity. The story would have been better off it if ended with Uranko just leaving Japan. The lesbian bit at the end felt gratiutious, and frankly left an icky taste in my mouth.
Leftover Thoughts: The book stuck with me, the art of simplicity and beauty in everything. The time I spent reading the book was not only entertaining, but educational, about a whole different culture, about the mysteries behind such a beautiful culture, and about a significant chapter in the history of its evolution from the old ways to the new Westernization of the east.
No comments:
Post a Comment